Americans from across the country are sharing their stories with PBS American Portrait, and many describe being different and misunderstood. In this KQED Learn Discussion, students tap into their powers of inference to discuss the factors that shaped the narrators’ lives and their own.

Through video, photo, and text submissions, Sevdah, Grace, and Nubian share how factors in their lives have influenced who they are today. Choose one of their stories and identify what those factors are, analyze how those factors have impacted their present life and predict how their future life might be impacted by those factors.

Then: Share your story! What factors in your early life are impacting who you are today? How did those factors shape you? How do you think they will continue to affect you in the future? 

After participating in a class discussion, create your own video, image or text to complete the prompt, “You don’t know what it’s like to…”.